Japanese Apple fanboy lines up a week before release of new iPhones

And you thought only Star Wars fans were this crazy. Even before Apple made the official announcement about their new line of iPhones yesterday, a die-hard fanatic was already lined up outside the Apple store in Tokyo’s Ginza district, wanting to be one of the first people to own the new mobile phones hitting the market on September 20.

44-year-old businessman Tetsuya Tamura has the distinction of being the very first in line and has even used up his annual leave from his company just to be the first owner of either the iPhone 5S or 5C, which were unveiled on September 10 at the annual keynote speech by Apple. “Being here gets my adrenaline going,” he said. He started live-tweeting his experience of doing so, for lack of anything better to do. But at least he already gained more than 1,000 additional followers since he began, and people are generally very supportive of his plan, although there are some who are questioning his wisdom and emotional stability as well. But he seems determined to wait it out for a week, even amidst the rain and the eventual hygienic issues of staying in that spot until September 20. Along the way, he will probably be getting his 15 minutes of fame, as well as develop friendships and relationships with his fellow fanatics who’ll be joining him in the queue.

While Apple’s global sales have sharply declined the past few years, Japan is a market that still seems like an iPhone country, despite the onslaught of various Android devices. Despite being known for its technological advancement, Japan came in late into the smartphone world, previously preferring to stick to the clam-shell models that are now almost totally outdated. Its biggest mobile carrier NTT Docomo is finally going to offer Apple products to its subscribers after years of seeing its competitors Softbank and KDDI gobble up the iPhone market.

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